Sunday, February 11, 2007

For those of you who have not looked at yesterday’s update today, you might want to take a peek. There are a few more pictures that took a while to get posted due to technological difficulties. Enjoy!!!

Today we went to the Folk Art Museum here in Guangzhou. It was an old school building built by one of the wealthiest families to ever live in Guangzhou , The Chen Family. The whole building itself had intricate carvings on the gables and over doorways as you can see in the pictures. In the rooms of the building housed displays of all different types of Chinese art forms such as water color paintings, wood and ivory carvings, embroidery, a unique form of sand and bamboo art, sculptures, etc. We purchased a couple of paintings and a sand and bamboo art piece for our home.

We then took another trip to the Friendship Store to go to the supermarket to pick up any supplies or food we need for our last week here. Lottie was a bit more subdued today, probably tired from our trip, but still very content, just not quite as many smiles for the camera. She did not nap as well today though perked up for a nice Japanese dinner this evening. We ate at this Japanese restaurant adjacent to our hotel . We ate in a room with two other couples and their daughters at a table sunken in the floor where you sit on the floor and take your shoes off before coming into the dining area. The food was delicious. We both had steak , along with fried rice, tempura, soup and salad. Lottie enjoyed playing around the table at dinner. She was in good spirits and even tried some vanilla ice cream for the first time. She made a funny face as it was cold and the girls are not used to anything cold but then she wanted more!!

This afternoon we completed the paperwork in preparation for our US Consulate appointment on Wednesday. We paid one of our last fees for the adoption in preparation for this appointment other than the post placement fees.

Tomorrow the girls go for their medical exams which are required before this appointment on Wednesday. Hopefully this will not phase Lottie as she is quite social and no needles will be involved. It is mostly just a formality for their preparation to leave the country. Some of the girls in the other groups have been quite sick though, with pneumonia and even requiring hospitalization. Pray for these families that these girls will be well enough to travel home as planned before Chinese New Year. Everything shuts down here for Chinese New Year which is on the 18th of this month.

After the medical exams tomorrow we will stay on Shamian Island for some souvenir shopping. We will also try to take the famous red couch picture at the White Swan Hotel. In the Chinese adoption community it is tradition for the girls to have their picture taken on the red couch in this hotel. We are starting to think more about home as our departure date nears. We love China and are very grateful for what they have done to bring us our daughter but we are ready to return to America and our family and friends. We are thankful too for new friends we have met on this journey but are longing to see those of you at home!!! We love you dearly and can’t wait to return and share our journey in full with you and introduce you to the newest member of our circle of family and friends!!!